Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania, is located in
the southeast part of the state at the junction of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. It is
coextensive with Philadelphia County.

Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, was settled in 1681 by Capt.
William Markham, who, with a small band of colonists, had been sent out by
his cousin, William Penn. Penn arrived
the following year with the intention of creating a refuge for the Quakers.

In the period before the American Revolution, the city outstripped all
others in the colonies in education, arts, science, industry, and
commerce. In 1774–1776, the First and Second Continental
Congresses met in Philadelphia, and, from 1781–1783,
the city was the capital of the United States under the Articles of Confederation.
In 1790, it became the nation's capital under the Constitution and
remained so until the seat of the federal government moved to Washington
in 1800.

Within a half-century of the founding of the nation at Independence Hall,
Philadelphia had emerged as a leader in America's Industrial Revolution.
Today the steam locomotives and hat factories of the 19th century have
been replaced by diverse manufacturing specialties such as chemicals
(including pharmaceuticals), medical devices, transportation equipment,
and printing and publishing. In the services sector, Philadelphia leads in
subsectors such as health services, insurance carriers, legal services,
and architecture and engineering services. Philadelphia is also home to
branches of the U.S. Mint, the Federal Reserve System, and
the Internal Revenue Service.

The city's harbor, one of the largest freshwater ports in the world, is
the centerpiece of the AmeriPort facility in south Philadelphia, a major
shipping center with rail links to the Midwest and Canada.